 Tonight is a major victory for democracy in Ohio, the majority still rules in Ohio. So by now I'm sure that most of you have heard the good news, but on Tuesday night in a special election, Ohio voters resoundingly rejected issue one, which for those unaware, was a brazen attempt by the state's Republican party to subvert democracy all in an effort to defeat an upcoming ballot initiative that would expand reproductive rights in November. Now what they wanted to do was make it more difficult for citizens to amend their state's constitution by raising the vote threshold to 60% as opposed to a simple 50 plus 1% majority. Now this ballot initiative would have cemented that. And they cynically chose to hold this special election in August, even though literally earlier this year they effectively banned August special elections citing the cost and low turnout as part of their reasoning. But they chose to violate their own law to capitalize on low turnout in a brazen effort to push through an undemocratic amendment that would increase the odds that they would defeat this upcoming pro-choice ballot initiative. So their desperation here is palpable, but they're not wrong to think that they'd lose if they didn't rat fuck this election. Because as NBC News reports, abortion rights have won in literally every single election since Roe v Wade was overturned. Just over a year ago, Kansas voters rejected an amendment that it would have eliminated the right to an abortion. And on November 8th, abortion rights won in all five states where it was on the ballot, notably including red states like Kentucky and Montana and a purple state like Michigan. And Ohio is now the seventh state to reject attempts to restrict reproductive rights thus far. And this doesn't even take into account the Wisconsin Supreme Court election held in April, which was largely about reproductive rights as well, where the pro-choice judge won over the far-right anti-choice judge. Now as a result of L after L after L, well, predictably, the Republican Party is in full blown panic mode, pissing and shitting themselves, trying to figure out a way to get out of this hole that they've dug for themselves. NBC News explains, the Ohio result tonight coming on the heels of the shellacking in Michigan and the unexpected loss in Kentucky needs to be a five-alarm fire for the pro-life movement. Patrick Brown, a conservative scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, tweeted late Tuesday. We haven't figured out both the messaging and the substance to appeal to the voter in the middle, who's maybe personally conflicted about abortion, but doesn't like the idea of a really rigid ban, Brown said in an interview with NBC News. The pro-choice side has been really effective at finding language that resonates with Republicans and independents, and the pro-life side has not done the same thing in reverse. And we're seeing the results play out, unfortunately. To me, the most frustrating thing has been the sort of circular firing squad that we've seen between various presidential candidates and some of the bigger pro-life organizations in DC about whether or not to push for a federal 15-week ban, he said. Right now, we have to stem the bleeding and holding to the most purest conception of what it needs to look like, I think, is doing everybody a disservice. So this is very fascinating to me because you have a conservative here admitting not only that they've lost when it comes to messaging on this issue, but also saying that the issue itself has caused intraparty warfare amongst Republicans, and what they're trying to do currently, as you've seen with the GOP primary, is outflank each other from the right on this issue so they can win with the GOP's far-right base. But the problem is that that's going to cost them greatly when it comes to the general election, and a bunch of Republicans are watching in horror as this happens because they're realizing that this is just a losing issue for them, and there's no way around that. And continuing to hyper-focus on this and be very extreme on this issue is going to hurt the entire party. But Republican candidates just won't shut the fuck up about it, and it's making strategists worried. And it's not just the GOP's presidential contenders who are doing this. Remember, in September of last year, right after Kansas voters just rejected the party's first birtherism at the ballot box, Lindsey Graham introduced a national 15-week abortion ban, and even Mitch McConnell ran away from it knowing that it hurt them in the midterms, and it did. So now, when you look at the GOP and how they're still talking about abortion in the primary, well, they're anticipating another bloodbath in 2024 because they just won't change their rhetoric, they won't tone down the rhetoric, and they won't even just stop talking about this issue, and that's a problem. And they're finally admitting that this is indeed a problem. So this is going to continue to be an issue for them so long as they keep doubling and tripling and quadrupling down, and you have some who are coping and saying, yeah, well, we're just being outspent by the radical left and others who are like, voters just don't agree with us on this issue. Full stop. So here's more from NBC News, quote, there shouldn't be any sugarcoating over what happened last night. It was a major setback in what became a very public fight between pro-choice and pro-life groups. Bill Stepien, the campaign manager for former President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, said on Fox News, quote, this happened in Ohio, which is not a pink state anymore. This is a state that is red. The bigger concern is what this means for 2024. National pro-choice groups are at the ready and ready to pound, Stepien said. We know Democrats aren't excited at all about Joe Biden. These groups are going to provide rocket fuel to a pretty unenthusiastic candidacy and be on the ground and be knocking on doors. We're going to be breathing life into a pretty unenthusiastic campaign. It is a sad day for Ohio, and a warning for pro-life states across the nation said an unsigned statement from Susan B. Anthony, pro-life America, blaming the defeat on liberal dark money that was used to mislead Ohio wins amid a silence of the establishment and business community. National right to life president Carol Tobias said she was caught off guard by how outgunned abortion opponents were after the Supreme Court's Dobs decision. Quite frankly, we're being so outspent that it's hard to counter the message that is coming out from our opponents Tobias said. The biggest one for me that I was not expecting were the lies that were being told about women not being able to get treatment that women were going to die. Yeah. So they're like the dog that catches the car. They finally get what they want after decades of pushing for this and now they don't know what to do and they're shocked by the backlash. And you love to see it. Now that last person was delusional because first and foremost women have not been able to get treatment in many instances. I mean states like Texas are literally being sued by women who were denied care for non viable pregnancies. And no, we haven't had high profile cases of women dying, but there's been dozens of women where they've come close to death. Is that not scary enough for you? I mean, does that alone not get you to at least rethink your position a little bit? Of course not because there's a plethora of laws that would end abortion tourism so women can't travel to other states to get abortions. So they accuse us of hyperbole and fear mongering. Yet they do everything that they can to make the worst case scenario become a reality. I think that it's good that women haven't died yet, but it shouldn't have to come to that because what we've said would happen has already been happening in multiple states. But putting that aside, they know that they're in trouble. They've dug their heels in too hard and they're now getting what they wanted. But the problem is that it's not panning out as they thought, right? It's blowing up in their face. And there's really no winning for them here because if they choose to ease off the abortion stance to win back swing voters then they risk alienating their own base. So they're damned if they do, damned if they don't. And they've turned off suburban women which have been very, very good for them in terms of winning over these swing states, rust belt states for example. So before they could get these suburban voters by fear-mongering about crime or LGBTQ plus rights, but now these same women who came out for them before, who came out for Trump, are abandoning them because this issue affects them directly and the GOP is squarely to blame for that. So here's some additional insight, courtesy of MSNBC. Women were very clear in their rejection of extremism in this election and there's no doubt that our desire, that our demand to get our reproductive rights back is a huge motivating force in this election. But voters, suburban women are who we represent and it's just incredible to see these election results tonight. You know, counties in the suburbs that actually went for Republicans in the U.S. Senate and Governor's Race in 22 are voting overwhelmingly no tonight. And we're also even seeing that in our sort of exurban, more rural counties too. It's just incredible. These counties, some of them, JD Vance won by 60, 70 percent. They are voting no too. And in my own county, Cuyahoga County, which is one of our urban counties where Cleveland is, but also has tons of suburbs, this is one of the places where we had to go big. And in 2022, our turnout just wasn't enough to carry the state. But we are seeing a dramatic difference tonight. Just turnout is blowing everyone out of the water, everyone's expectations. It is good to be an Ohioan tonight. And I think the ramifications are huge, not just for the rejection of extremism in Ohio, but Republicans, they have gone too far all across this country. It's not just Trump. And this is a big message against extremism tonight. Yeah. So basically, if polls weren't the wake-up call that Republicans needed to wake up on this issue, then I mean, these results from these elections should be. But I mean, again, they're dealing with this issue where they really can't move because if they alienate their own base, then that's also going to cost them. So really, all Democrats have to do is make the 2024 election about abortion. They don't really have to do anything else. You could be a corporate Democrat and do nothing else. But if you make this issue about abortion and you say that you're going to protect reproductive health care, you have an advantage built in. So Republicans fucked up and they know it. And I enjoy watching them scramble, but if you think they're going to reverse course, I don't think that's going to be the case. What we're going to see is more scrambling where they try to gin up different cultural war issues to distract you from the thing that you're really pissed off about. But at the end of the day, this thing has a real material concrete effect on the people who previously voted for them, suburban women, women across the country. So you can't put the cat back in the bag, right? They can't undo the damage that they've caused. They fucked up royally. So unless there's some other issue that's more salient than abortion, well, they're going to have to live with this mistake unless they choose to change. But again, if they do that, they alienate their own base. So they're just kind of fucked right now. And you'll love to see it because this party isn't just bad with regard to the issue of abortion. They are an authoritarian, fascistic organization. And the more that they are kept out of power because of their own evilness and stupidity, the better off the country and the world will be literally. Ha, ha, ha, ha.